Harry and Louise Novelli

AARP President William Novelli is the founder of Porter Novelli.

Harry and Louise

Challenge
Threatened with a measure that would severly impact their industry - what seemed like certain passage of President Clinton's health care proposal in 1994, HIAA hired GCPN to so something notoriously difficult: get the attention of elected officials when there was no election in sight.

Insights
Positioning "Harry and Louise," an average American couple, to speak "for" not "to" the American people, we created a campaign that highlighted the public's concerns about the Clinton plan.

Ideas
Managing the key components of the campaign -- paid media, earned media, grassroots outreach and coalition building -- GCPN worked closely with representatives from HIAA staff and member companies to ensure that the campaign's lobbying effort and media execution were coordinated, complementary and in tune with the campaign's overall plan.

Impact
"Harry and Louise" prompted 500,000 calls to our 800 number, turned 50,000 of those callers into activists and resulted in one-quarter million contacts with members of Congress. The campaign is widely credited as being a key factor in defeating the Clinton plan.